1. Field of the Present Disclosure
This disclosure relates generally to systems for ion field experimentation, and more particularly to such a system having a method and apparatus for injecting, confining, compressing, neutralizing, and accelerating an ion field.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
Lawrence, U.S. Pat. No. 1,948,384, discloses a means for causing ions to travel in curved paths back and forth between a single pair of electrodes. The ions move in paths effected by the action of a magnetic field, by means of which the ions are deflected so that their motion is repeatedly reversed with reference to the electric field between electrodes and the voltage of such electrodes oscillates in synchronism with the reversal of the path of the particles. Bennett, U.S. Pat. No. 3,120,475, discloses a method of producing thermonuclear generation of power which comprises applying a magnetic field in a chamber symmetric about an axis of the chamber, applying an electrical field about the magnetic field symmetric with the axis, applying a positive potential to a first electrode and a negative potential to a second electrode both of which are positioned along the axis of the chamber with one each of the first and second electrodes positioned at opposite ends of the chamber and, injecting ions into the magnetic field at a position which is off the center of the magnetic field and off the axis of the chamber whereby the injected ions are curved into an orbit about the magnetic lines of force of the applied magnetic field, while advancing around the longitudinal axis of the magnetic lines of force and moving back and forth past the mid-plane of the applied field causing ion collisions near the axis of the chamber. Ruark, U.S. Pat. No. 3,527,977, discloses a method whereby an energetic oscillating stream of electrons in a confining magnetic field within an evacuated enclosure, and injecting one or more beams of energetic molecular ions into the interior of the enclosure and into the path of the stream of electrons where a portion of the molecular beam is dissociated and/or ionized by the stream of energetic electrons, to thereby form a hot plasma of ionized particles. When particles are injected with sufficient energy into a region containing relatively stationary electrons, it is possible for the electrons to excite or ionize the particles. In the case of molecular particles, excitation to a “repulsive” state leads directly to dissociation. Excitation to an “attractive” state on the other hand, leads to easy ionization in a subsequent collision. This is possible because molecules or atoms, in the excited state, have lower ionization energies, and the cross section for ionization is, in general, several times larger for the excited state than for the equivalent entity in the stable state. The metastable two-quantum state of the hydrogen atom is of particular interest since these metastable atoms have a life long enough to permit further excitation and eventual ionization. Maglich et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,024 discloses a self-colliding particle beam apparatus capable of increasing stored ion density by a factor of 10 and increasing ion confinement time by a factor of 10 to thereby increase the collisional energy between particles. The self-collider comprises essentially a superconducting magnet, an ultra-high vacuum system and an electrostatic stabilizer. The self-collider apparatus can be employed as part of a beam energy multiplier by combining it with an injector, including an ion source, an accelerator and a beam transport system. By increasing the stored ion density by a factor of 10 and by increasing the ion confinement time by a factor of 10, the increase in collisional probability between two particles increases by a factor of 1,000. If the masses of the particles in the beam are all the same, then the energy increase is up to a factor of 4 as calculated by the formula (1+M.sub.1/M.sub.2).sup.2. Blewett, U.S. Pat. No. 5,034,183 discloses an apparatus for increasing the collisions of nuclear particles in a “migma” type device. This device employs ring magnets to reflect ions of energies coming from the ring axis back to the ring axis on orbits that precess around the axis. In this manner collisions can be made to occur at rates which are high enough to yield useful quantities of energy or other desired products.
The related art described above discloses apparatus and methods for manipulating ions to meet various objectives including increasing nuclear collisions, increasing ion density and confinement time, controlled ionization and dissociation of molecules, and for producing thermonuclear generation of electrical power. However, the prior art fails to disclose the present relatively simple magnetic bottle and technique for accelerating ions in a compressed ion field suitable for experimentation in confinement and ionizations studies. The present disclosure distinguishes over the prior art providing heretofore unknown advantages as described in the following summary.